After working out a deal to weaken it, Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)–chairman of the Blue Dogs’ health care task force–has now publicly stated that he’ll oppose any health care bill with a public option. The news rankled progressives, who believe the public option in the House is already compromised enough. But is Ross’ statement indicative of a larger post-August shift in Blue Dog sentiment.
The short answer is yes–at least to some extent.
According to one Blue Dog aide, skepticism rose among members of the coalition not as a result of wacked-out tea baggers, but because, toward the end of the month, they had heard a different kind of skepticism.
“As August progressed, the aide said, “they started hearing from business people, Chamber of Commerce–people started to realize that this is different than just the rightest of the right.”
The ironic effect of that shift in sentiment, though, may not be so bad for reformers. As The Hill noted yesterday, nearly two dozen Blue Dogs and vulnerable freshmen are planning to vote no on House health care legislation, or leaning that way. That means leadership can only afford to lose fewer votes from the party’s left, which increases the pressure on them to make sure the public option stays put–at least for now.
The aide also said that the upshot for all this is that the negotiation is not now, as is so often the case, between House progressives and Blue Dogs, but between House progressives and the Senate (and, perhaps, Democratic party leadership)
“At a certain point, nobody’s gonna get everything they want,” the aide said. “I think that it’s pretty clear that the Senate is not going to be able to pass a strong public option. So if the question is asked after conference, ‘it’s this or nothing,’ they’re going to have to make a decision.”
